You Make Me Beautiful
by Twisted Little Star
Summary: George Weasley has finally gathered enough courage to ask out Alicia Spinnet, the girl of his dreams. But what will happen when he finds out that she wants someone else: his own twin brother Fred! GeorgeAlicia, please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don´t own anything except the plot and more than my fair share of imagination.

**Author´s note: **I love reading stories about George/Alicia, but there are still too few of them out there so I thought I´d write one myself. It´s my first fanfic, so please review!

_But baby can't you see_

_There's nothing else for me to do_

_I'm hopelessly devoted to you_

_- Olivia Newton-John_

**Alicia´s PoV:**

"Oi! Angelina!" Fred called out across the room. I felt the well-known knot in my stomach as Angelina turned to answer him. I knew what would come next...

"Want to come to the ball with me?"

"All right, then," Angelina said before she turned back to me with a bit of a grin on her face. I quickly put on a smile on my own face too before she understood how I really felt.

"I never thought he would ask me," she said quietly, a relieved look on her face.

"Oh, I knew he would ask you all along," I answered. And that was the unfair part. Angelina, the one Fred had a crush on, didn´t realise his feelings, while I, the one he didn´t like, understood perfectly well what he felt. And I didn´t like it.

It´s not like I don´t like Angelina, don´t get me wrong. She is my best friend, and I want her to be happy. But sometimes it seems like she has all the luck! I mean, just look at her! She is one of the prettiest girls at school, with chocolate-coloured skin, long, black hair, high cheekbones and almost black eyes, and she´s got all the right curves. I guess I can understand why Fred likes her and not me. I´m skinny, with grey eyes and a so-called delicate spreckle´ of freckles, and while my hair is just as black as Angelina´s, it´s not thick and silky like hers, but thin and with these annoying curls. In other words, I´m nothing compared to her.

"Leesh? Are you listening?" I woke up from my thoughts and stared at Angelina for several seconds before I realized that she was talking to me.

"No, not really," I admitted. "What were you saying?"

"You´re hopeless, girl! I asked you if you had a date for the ball yet."

"No," I said. "A couple of guys have asked me, though, but I didn´t want to go with any of them." Because I want to go with your date, I added inwardly. They probably only asked me because I´m on the Quidditch team anyway.

I really didn´t feel like discussing the matter with her, but it didn´t look like I had any choice. Luckily our conversation was interrupted by Katie coming in.

Katie´s my other best friend, and the only one who knows about my crush on Fred. She´s really beautiful to, but in a different way than Angelina. Katie´s blonde, with blue eyes and perfect skin. I´ve never seen her having a pimple. She´s also quite short, and looks almost like a porcelain doll. And last but not least, she´s the most forgetful person I´ve ever met. Right now she was looking for her sweater, which she appearently for some reason had left in the Common Room.

"Have any of you seen my new sweater? It´s pink, and very pretty. I´m sure I left it here!"she said. Then she noticed the grin on Angelina´s face.

"Hmmm... And what can we get from that expression, Angie? Could it possibly be that... Fred´s asked you to the ball?" She grinned and joined us.

"Yup, of course" Angelina answered matter-of-factly, even though we all knew that she´d been really nervous about whether Fred would ask her or not. Katie then turned to me, snickering. Here it comes, I thought...

"What about you, Leesh? Have you gotten a date yet?" Yes, there it came. Just like I knew it would.

"Not you too!" I exclaimed. "Angie´s just been bugging me about it, and now you´re in it too. It´s easy for you, you´ve always got Lee."

"Yeah, talking ´bout Lee... Has he asked you yet?" Angelina asked, leaning forward.

"Asked me yesterday," Katie said, beaming. "I have to admit, I almost thought he would be too shy to ask me. But then he came up to me, just like that, and asked." She giggled happily and then looked at me again, with a look on her face that told me she was up to something.

"So, that leaves only you, Leesh," she teased. "Guess Angie and I will have to find a boy for you then..."

Angelina smirked and joined in.

"And who could that be? Can you think of someone, Katie?"

"Well... I suppose there´s always... George!"

"All right, that´s it!" I stood up and scowled at them. "I´m going to bed!" I stomped off hearing them giggling behind me. Why did they always have to drag in George? I mean, he´s cute and stuff, but he´s my best friend. It would be like dating my brother or something. Besides, I´m in love with Fred, even if he doesn´t love me back. And that´s all that matters to me.

Weee, finally finished with first chapter! blows up ballons and eats large amounts of cake

I know it´s a bit boring, but it´s just to get to know the setting. I promise it´ll get better soon! Remember, the Yule Ball is coming up!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I´m not JK Rowling. What a surprise.

**A/n: **Hope you like this chapter! It´s longer than the first, and better too. Thanks to Angel de la Luna, Jagged Epiphany and Gaelic Lover for being my first reviewers.

_I want you to want me_

_I need you to need me_

_I'd love you to love me_

_I'm begging you to beg me_

_-Letters To Cleo _

**George´s PoV:**

I have to admit that I sometimes admire Fred. I would never have dared to ask the girl I like to the ball while everybody was listening. Then again, it´s different for Fred. He knows that he is good-looking and that all the girls want him. Me, I´m not that self-confident. I´ve liked Alicia Spinnet since third year and I still haven´t dared to ask her out. Talk about pathetic, eh? Fred´s liked Angelina for about as long, though, and he hasn´t dared to ask her out before recently. Perhaps he isn´t as self-confident as he seems.

Anyway, when Fred asked Angelina to the ball I decided I had to ask Alicia. After all, it couldn´t be too bad, could it? I figured I´d simply walk over to her and ask her, just like that. Turned out it wasn´t that easy, of course. I´d never fully realised the fact that Alicia´s always surrounded by friends. Usually it´s Angelina and Katie, who are all right since they´re my friends too, but sometimes there are also other girls, giggling and gossiping all the time. Seriously, she´s never alone!

Finally, more than one week after I decided I´d ask her, I came upon her doing homework in the Library. Thankfully, she was by herself. By that time, I´d almost given up getting to talk to her alone, but now I saw my chance. I sat down beside her, tried my best to look casual, and sent her a grin full of Weasley charm. That´s what I thought, anyway.

"Why are you grinning that way? It makes you look stupid," Alicia snickered.

I glared at her, but stopped grinning just in case. "I´m grinning in a charming and dashing, yet modest way," I explained.

"Yeah, whatever you say. Why are you here anyway? I never thought I´d see a Weasley twin visit the library when he didn´t have to."

"Hey, that´s not fair! Why are you here all alone, anyway?" I asked

"I´m just finishing my History of Magic essay. Katie and Angie are done with theirs, and they couldn´t be quiet, so I told them to leave me alone while I finished mine."

"History of Magic essay? When is that due?"

"It´s due tomorrow." She smiled innocently at me. "But of course you´ve done it already."

"_Tomorrow?_" I swore under my breath. I´d completely forgotten about the stupid essay. "What´s it about?"

"Three feet on the Centaurs´ stance on the difference between beasts and persons."

I groaned. There was no way in hell I´d manage to write three feet on something I didn´t have a clue about by tomorrow.

"Judging from your expression, you haven´t done it yet. What a surprise." She looked at me and smiled again. My stomach flipped. "Are you here to write it? No, obviously not, since you apparently had forgotten it. Then why are you here?"

I straightened up. This was probably the only opportunity I´d have of asking her without being surrounded by people and I knew I had to take it. Still, I was beginning to feel really nervous and talking suddenly seemed a lot more difficult.

"Er... I actually came here to look for you," I finally managed to say. She gave me a questioning look, which almost made me lose my courage. I hurried on before I could change my mind.

"I was wondering... Would you like to... Um, you know, go to the ball with me? As a friend, of course, I know you don´t think of me that way..." I was rambling, and I knew it. Still, I had said it, and I felt a bit proud of myself.

Alicia, on the other hand, looked rather surprised.

"Are you asking me to the ball? I thought you were going with one of your giggling admirers!" she said.

I was offended. It was true that there were some girls at school who had fallen for my Weasley charm, but how could she think I would rather go with one of them than with my best friend?

"Oh, them... No, I´d rather go with a girl who has brains," I replied.

"But they´re much prettier than me."

"They´re also boring, and most of them are too stupid for their own good. Anyway, is that a yes or a no?"

She shrugged, seemed to hesitate a little, but then smiled at me. "Sure. Why not? I still think they´re a lot prettier than me, though."

"Oh, no, Leesh! You know you´ll always be my beauty." I winked at her and left quickly to keep her from noticing my blush.

On my way back to the Gryffindor Tower I ran into Fred and Lee. I could tell from their stupid grins that they had been hanging out with Angelina and Katie. I suddenly I felt a jolt of envy because they both were able to express their feelings to the girls they were in love with. Why couldn´t it be that easy for me? But I had asked her to the ball. And she did say yes.

"Where have you been?" Fred asked. "We went looking for you, but we couldn´t find you anywhere."

"Oh, you know, just hanging around. Sneaking food from the kitchen, scaring first years, asking Alicia to the ball, that kind of stuff." Good job, George, I thought to myself. Just sneak it into the conversation, don´t make a big deal out of it.

Fred and Lee seemed to think it was a big deal, though.

"You finally asked her? About time!" Fred exclaimed.

"Yeah, we never thought you´d dare to ask her!" Lee joined in. "Where did this happen? And how?"

"Hey, it´s nothing to make a fuss about," I assured them. "We´re just going as friends. How did you know I wanted to ask her anyway?"

"Well, it´s pretty obvious, isn´t it? You´ve been head over heels for her since third year, so it´s about time you did something about it," Fred explained. "Angie was even taking bets on you asking her. Everybody knows it! Except Alicia, of course."

"She´s been taking bets?" I said. "I can´t believe this. I thought nobody knew!"

We reached the common room and sat down in front of the fireplace. I was eager to continue the discussion, but then Alicia entered. She was really looking pretty today, I noticed. She had let her hair hang loose, and her curls were shining. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, which made her big grey eyes look even brighter than they usually did.

"And that, my friend," Lee said, "is how we know. You´re staring."

"I´m not!" I protested. "I´m just looking at her in passing..."

"Yeah, right. You looked like your eyes were about to pop out!" They both snorted with laughter.

"Well, it´s not like you two aren´t drooling over Angie and Katie everytime you set eyes on them," I countered, knowing that it was a lame reply. It certainly made no impression on Fred and Lee, they just laughed harder. I scowled at them.

"It´s none of your business anyway!" I growled, throwing away all the dignity I had left. Fred looked like he was going to say more, but he was interrupted when Angelina, Katie and Norah, a girl who´s in fifth year with Katie, came in. They joined us in front of the fireplace.

"Hey, guess what!" Fred said with an evil grin. "George asked Leesh to the ball!"

"He did?"Angelina turned and smiled sweetly to Fred. "I guess that means you owe me three sickles then."

"Oh, yeah... I´d forgotten about that. Can it wait till tomorrow?"

"Sure. But you owe me, don´t forget that!"

I glared at them. "Hey! Can we please not forget what´s the topic here is?" I looked at Norah, who´s not a part of our group, and therefore wouldn´t be influenced by Fred.

"Did you know I had a crush on Alicia too?"

"Of course I knew. Anyone can see that!" she said matter-of-factly. "You´re too obvious. You´re always staring at her."

"Told you so!" Lee cried out triumphantly.

"Face it, brother. You´re busted." Fred grinned at me and then turned to the others. "So, who´s up for a round of Exploding Snap?"

A couple of days later I was sitting at dinner, complaining to Alicia about Snape giving me an unfair detention (again). I mean, it´s not my fault that potions explode when you throw a Filibuster´s Firework in them, is it? Besides, I think the Slytherins who were hit actually looked better with big glowing, orange spots everywhere. Too bad Snape didn´t agree. He didn´t believe that it was an accident, either.

Alicia had just pointed out that it had looked very much like I was aiming at the Slytherins´ potion when I heard a voice behind me, saying my name. I turned around and saw that it was Felicity, a sixth year Hufflepuff I had been dating for a while. She was a very pretty girl with long dark brown hair and big brown eyes. Unfortunately she also had a brain about the size of a pea.

"Hi, Georgie," she said and came over to me.

I winced. I really, really hate being called Georgie.

"Hey Felicity," I answered. "What´s up?"

She smiled her beautiful, but oh-so-stupid smile, and sat down next to me. "I was just thinking about our dates. We had a great time, didn´t we?"

Actually I had been bored almost out of my wits, but I decided it wouldn´t be a very good idea to tell her that.

"Yeah, sure." I wondered what she was up to. Considering that the last time we spoke she was furious with me for flirting with one of her friends, I was a bit surprised that she was talking to me at all.

"You know, we really should try going out again."

"Um... We should?"

"Yeah, we should. Why don´t we go to the ball together?" She looked at me expectantly.

I almost started laughing. Felicity was asking me to the ball? Felicity, the girl who had told me she never wanted to speak to me again? Must´ve been the Weasley charm working.

"That would have been great, of course, but I´m going with Alicia here, so I can´t. Sorry." I grinned at her apologetically and then turned back to my food, thinking that the conversation was over. But to Felicity, it obviously wasn´t.

"You´d rather go with her than with me? But I´m so pretty!" she yelled. Everybody at the table turned to look at her, but she didn´t seem to notice.

I tried to calm her down. "Of course you´re pretty, but so is Alicia, and I´m going with her. I´ve already asked her."

She didn´t look any calmer. Instead of admitting defeat and leaving, like I thought she would, she turned to Alicia.

"You´re behind this, Alicia Spinnet. Don´t think you´re so great just because you´re on the Quidditch team, because you aren´t! I´ll get you for this, I promise!" Then she ran off, leaving everybody in shocked silence.

Oooh, don´t we just love drama? Scary girl, that Felicity.

I almost forgot this: Thanks again to Alicia for beta reading my story!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I don´t own Harry Potter.

**A/n: **Lately, I´ve become abnormally obsessed with rain. Whenever it´s raining, I´ll go outside and stand there for a long time just to feel the air. It´s very refreshing.

This chapter is dedicated to my best friend Lily. Remember that I´ll always be there for you, even though I might not be too good at showing it.

_I have fallen in love_

_I see the famous pink clouds_

_I have fallen in love_

_No matter how much I try to shake it off_

_I have fallen in love with my best friend's baby_

_-Nathalie Nordnes_

**Alicia´s PoV:**

The day after The Incident At Dinner´, Katie, Angelina and I were sitting in the common room doing homework. My friends were still teasing me about the whole me-going-to-the-ball with-George thing.

"We told you so!" Katie exclaimed happily. "But did you believe us? Oh no. Why should you listen to your best friends?"

Actually, I wasn´t listening very closely to her now either. I was too busy replaying the entire Felicity-scene for the fifth time that day. Why did George choose me over her? I mean, she´s about a hundred times as pretty as I am. Was it just because we´re friends and he´d already asked me, or could it be...

Could it really be true that he fancied me?

And if he did, what the hell was I supposed to do about it? I mean, George is a very nice guy, and one of my best friends. Not to mention that he´s totally hot, come to think of it. He´s one of the most popular boys at school. So I suppose I´m a very lucky girl. If he fancies me, that is. But the problem was that I did not have those kind of feelings for him. It´d probably be a lot easier if I did, but Fred´s the only one I want.

However, at the moment I had more pressing matters to attend to, such as what I was going to wear. I still hadn´t got a dress robe, so the following weekend I went to this great clothes store in Hogsmeade with Katie and Angelina. They had already gotten robes, and therefore were free to help me. Katie was really enthusiastic, seeing as her speciality – apart from Quidditch of course – is clothes. She kept finding new robes and insisting I try them all on. Angelina was a bit more relaxed, but in the end she found the robe I wanted. It was blue, the shade of the sky on a summer day, and I loved it from the moment I saw it.

"You look gorgeous!" Katie exclaimed when I tried it on.

Looking in the mirror, I had to agree that she had a point. The robe really looked good on me. I still wasn´t beautiful, but I didn´t at all look bad.

"George is so going to love that robe," Angelina stated, grinning.

I scowled at her. Why do they always have to drag in George? I wasn´t going to wear the robe for him or anyone else.

I kept wondering what Fred would think of it, though.

"Leesh! Wake up!"

I groaned at the sound of Angelina´s voice. How can people sound so bloody cheerful so early in the morning?

"Go away! I´m sleeping!"

"No you´re not, you´re talking," she kindly pointed out. "And I don´t think you really want to go to sleep again. It´s Christmas!"

"Christmas?" I sat up, instantly awake. Tonight I was going to the Yule Ball with George, who is my best friend, but not the one I love. And I´d have to endure seeing Fred, whom I love, with Angelina, my other best friend. Life´s just not fair.

"Aren´t you going to open your presents?" Angelina looked at me expectantly.

"Of course I am. But can you please let me wake up first?" I tried to scowl at her, but she had turned her attention towards her presents instead of me. I did the same, eager to find out what I´d gotten.

The day went by quickly, much quicker than I wanted it to. At five Angelina, Katie and I left the snowball fight we were having with the boys to get ready to the ball, much to the boys´ surprise ("You´re going already? The ball´s not starting for three hours! Girls are weird.") Back in the dorm, I showered and put on my robe. Angelina helped me with my hair, and Katie did my make-up. I was ready for the ball.

George sat in front of the fireplace, his back towards me.

"Hi, George." He turned to me, and his mouth fell open.

"Leesh! You´re looking... beautiful."

"Thanks." I smiled at him. "You look great too." It was true. He was wearing a navy-blue robe, and for once his hair wasn´t a mess. It actually looked like he had used a comb on it. However, my attention was dragged away from him when Fred, who was looking even more handsome than usual, came in. He nodded at me.

"Nice robe, Leesh," he said, and my heart did one of its stupid flip-flops. He liked my robe! His next words dragged me down to earth again, though.

"Has Angie come down yet?"

"No." I shook my head. "But she´ll be down here any minute now." And she´ll be looking so pretty that you won´t notice me again tonight, I added silently.

I was right, of course. The minute he saw Angelina coming down the stairs in her dark red robes, looking fantastic, I might as well not have been there. I turned to George.

"Shall we?" He offered me his arm, and we went down to the Great Hall. There we met Katie, who had gone down before us.

"Hi!" she greeted us. "We´ve saved you seats! Come on!" We pushed our way through the crowd, over to the table where Lee was sitting.

"What took you so long?" he complained. "We´ve been waiting forever!"

"If I know you two right, you probbly haven´t wasted your time," Angelina commented wrily. Katie proved her right by blushing and giggling. She was looking beautiful tonight too, dressed up in pink robes and with braided hair. If she weren´t my best friend, I´d probably hate her guts.

"Look! There are the champions!"

We all turned to look at them. I could see Harry, who looked too embarrassed for words. Poor boy, he´s so shy. Cedric Diggory was going with Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker. That snobbish French girl, Fleur Delacour, was going with Roger Davies, and Viktor Krum was accompanied by a girl I didn´t know. At least that´s what I thought, until she passed our table. When I realized who she was, I jabbed my elbow into George´s ribs.

"Ouch! What are you doing, Leesh?"

"Have I finally lost it or was Krum´s partner Hermione Granger?"

He stared after them. "Damn, you´re right! What´s happened to her?"

"I have no idea. Perhaps it´s the lack of books," I suggested.

He grinned at this. "Yeah, that´s possible. Bet Ron´s noticed it too."

I nodded. The poor boy´s crush on Hermione has been obvious to everybody except themselves for a long time. I wondered when they´d realize it.

The dancing started. The champions were first on the floor, looking a bit awkward. But pretty soon they were joined by others. Fred dragged Angelina into a wild dance, which scared everybody, while Lee and Katie danced so close that it almost wasn´t decent. That left George and me alone at the table. For a while we sat in silence. Then, suddenly, he turned to me.

"Wanna dance?" He looked very determined, and I couldn´t refuse.

"Sure," I said. We moved onto the floor and started dancing. It felt surprisingly nice to dance with him, to have his arms around me. It made me feel safe.

Afterwards I danced one dance with Lee, and one with Fred, which left me completely out of breath. I decided to sit down for a bit. Pretty soon George joined me.

"Want something to drink?" He handed me a glass of cold pumpkin juice, which I accepted gratefully.

"Thanks. It´s quite exhausting to dance with your brother, you know. He´s really energetic."

"Yeah, I guess so. Wonder how Angie can keep up with him. Seems like they´ve slowed down a bit."

I turned around to take a look. True enough, they were now dancing much slower. And closer. I wasn´t sure if I liked the way this was going.

"Listen, Leesh..." George said.

"Yes?" I answered, still staring at Fred and Angelina.

"There´s something I need to talk to you about." I nodded. What was going on with them? It looked very much like Fred was... He was...

He was kissing her.

"I have to go!" I interrupted George, who was still speaking. Then I ran out of the Hall and into the first empty classroom I came to. Once there, I gave in to the tears.

For the first time I realized how strong Fred´s feelings for Angelina were. Maybe I should just give up. But he´s so gorgeous! I sighed, trying to push the image of him and my best friend out of my head. A voice interrupted me.

"Leesh? You here?" It was Katie.

"Yes. You shouldn´t be. You should be out here with your boyfriend," I replied, trying to sound convincing, even though what I really wanted was for her to stay and comfort me.

"Don´t be silly. You´re my best friend, of course you go before him." She sat down next to me. "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged. "Actually, I feel stupid. I shouldn´t have run away like that. After all I knew that he liked her." I felt the tears coming again, but I fought them back.

"You´re not stupid, Leesh. You´ve just fallen in love with the wrong guy." She hugged me comfortingly. "George really likes you, you know."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, he´s even admitted it. Took him a lot of effort."

I smiled. Katie´s always been good at cheering me up. I felt much better already. All I needed to do was to be alone to think over the whole situation.

"You can go back now, Katie. I´ll be fine, I just need a moment alone."

"Ok."

She got up and left. For a while I just sat there, trying to get myself together. Then the door opened again.

"Leesh?"

"George?"

"Can I come in?" His face appeared in the doorway. I nodded, and he came in.

"Katie told me you were in here," he explained. I smiled briefly. That´s just like Katie.

"So, what´s wrong?" He sat down and put his arm around me. "Anything I can do to help?"

"It´s no big deal, really." I shook my head. "And no, there´s nothing you can do about it."

"Try me."

I looked at him. Perhaps I should give him a chance? He´s funny, and smart, and sweet... The perfect guy. And he looked so much like Fred... Before I knew what I was doing I leant forward and kissed him. It felt good for a moment, until I realized what I was doing. I was kissing my best friend!

"No!" I pulled away from him. "This is wrong. I can´t do this."

He looked at me for a long time. I could see realization dawning in his eyes as he understood what I had done.

"It´s Fred, isn´t it?"

"George..."

"Answer me, Alicia!" he hoarsely demanded.

I nodded, unable to think of anything I could say to explain.

"I can´t believe this!" He stepped further away from me. "You´ve been using me to get over your crush on my brother, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"Don´t try to excuse it! There is no excuse for this."

"George, I´m sorry." I moved closer to him, but he pushed me away.

"Don´t." The look in his eyes made me want to cry. "I don´t want to talk to you now. Or anytime soon." With those words he left. I was alone with my thoughts.

What had I done? I´d just used my best friend to get over my silly little heartache and now I´d hurt him worse than I ever thought was possible. He´d probably never forgive me for this. How could I ever make it up to him?


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I don´t own Harry Potter, but I hope I own the plot.

**A/n:** I´m gonna reply to my reviewers this time, ´cause it seems that people really liked the last chapter, and I got more reviews than I dreamed of getting.

Satinzevi89: And I love you for reviewing! Thanks!

Jamie 0: And you think mine´s good? That´s so cool!

Lily pod: Hope this is soon enough.

Rockingouttomanson: I know, I promise I´ll make it up to him.

Eruaphadriel: Who wouldn´t feel sorry for him? I know I do!

Starrycat: Well, Alicia has her problems too... But she shouldn´t have done it, I know.

Believe-in-yourself4ever: WOW! You got teary-eyed? That´s fantastic! ... I normally don´t become this happy when I make people cry.

Bel-o-kiu-kiuni: I´d love that! I don´t know when I´ll be finished with it, though. If you´re looking for more G/A stories, check out "Remember When" by Eruaphadriel and "Only Joking" by Lora Tempesta (unless you´ve already read them, of course). They´re both great stories, and I recommend them strongly.

LPLC: Thanks for saying that!

And so the chapter begins...

_For a long time I was in love_

_Not only in love, I was obsessed_

_With a friendship that no one else could touch_

_It didn´t work out, I´m covered in shells_

_-No Doubt_

**George´s PoV:**

After leaving Alicia, the only thing I wanted to do was sleep and forget what had just happened. I still couldn´t believe that she had really used me to get over my twin brother. She´s supposed to be one of my best friends and she knows how I hate it when people think that Fred and I are completely identical. Then she does this, showing that she didn´t understand at all.

And the worst part was that I still loved her.

On my way back to the Great Hall to tell the others that I was leaving, I ran into Felicity. She looked at me in a very strange way, and then ran off without saying a word. I assumed that I still looked a bit angry, so I relaxed my face before entering the Hall. Once there, I quickly made my way over to the table where Lee and Katie were sitting.

"Hey, mate!" Lee turned towards me. "We wondered where you´d got to, you´re missing out on all the fun." Over his shoulder, Katie mouthed the word Alicia´. I shook my head, and she got a disappointed look on her face. Lee, who hadn´t noticed a thing, continued talking.

"We found out why that Hufflepuff girl went so mad when you wouldn´t go with her." He grinned. "Turned out she had set her eyes on Roger Davies, but when he decided to go with the Veela, you were her last resort."

I nodded absentmindedly. "Well, that explains it. You know, I think I´ll go to bed now. I´m a bit tired."

"Already? It´s not even midnight!"

"Yeah, but I´ve got a bad headache," I lied. "I think I´ll try to sleep it off."

Lee looked like he was going to say something more, but Katie stopped him. I left them and headed back to the Tower before I could run into Fred. I wasn´t sure if I could bear to talk to him right now.

I spent the rest of Christmas trying to avoid Alicia, since I didn´t feel ready to talk to her yet. I wasn´t sure if I ever would. So I took to never being around her except at meals and when all of us friends were together. If she tried to talk to me alone, I always excused myself and left. I even started hanging out at the library, knowing that she´d never look for me there.

Of course, the others noticed that something was up. Fred tried several times to make me tell him what was wrong. I always refused to answer. What should I have said? Oh, it´s just that Alicia doesn´t return my feelings for her, she´s in love with you, and she therefore used me to get over it? There was no way I could tell him that. So I stuck to avoiding both his questions and Alicia.

However, when Christmas was over, avoiding her became harder. We had most classes together, and none of our friends except us took Advanced Potions. But by trying hard, I managed to keep her away for almost two weeks. Then Snape ruined everything, of course. Trust him to try to make my life a living hell.

"Today we´ll be making an Aging Potion," he declared during our Thursday class in the second week of term.

I smiled to myself – this would be easy. I´ve always been good at Potions, and I´d made this potion before, when Fred and I tried to put our names in the Goblet of Fire. That didn´t work out so well, but the potion was good.

"Today's partners will be... Let me see, Flint and Montague, Rogers and Bond, Spinnet and Weasley..." I didn´t hear the rest of the names, but I didn´t need to. I´d heard the important part, that I´d have to work with Alicia. And worse – talk to her. Grumbling, I made my way over to her table and sat down.

"Well, looks like we´re stuck with each other," I said before she could say anything. " So let´s try and make the best of it. There will be no talking except about the potion. All right?"

"But George..." she began.

I quickly interrupted her. "I mean it, Alicia. No talking."

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. I nodded in satisfaction.

"Okay, then. Let´s get started."

For the rest of the lesson we worked quietly, without any unnecessary talking. A couple of times Alicia looked like she was about to say something, but she always decided against it. When the lesson was finally over, I gathered a sample of the potion and handed it in to Snape. It had turned out perfect, and I knew we´d get a good grade on it. Alicia and I have always been a good team.

I got out of the classroom as fast as I could when Snape released us, but I wasn´t fast enough. Just as I was heading to lunch I was snatched by the sleeve of my robe and dragged into an empty classroom. I turned and found that it was Alicia who had forced me in there. She´s surprisingly strong, that girl.

"What´s this?" I asked, knowing perfectly well what it was. There was just no way I´d make it easier for her.

"George, I really need to talk to you," she began nervously.

"Oh yeah? About what?"

"Please, George, don´t make this so difficult." She looked almost desperate, and for a moment I almost forgave her. Almost.

"I´ll do whatever I want," I said.

"Oh, come on now! I´m trying to tell you that I´m sorry here!" she yelled, suddenly angry. I arched my eyebrows.

"And I´ll have to say that you´re doing a great job with that. I´m sure yelling at me is the right way to do it!" I countered.

Alicia looked like she regretted what she´d said. If I hadn´t been so mad at her, I´d probably have felt sorry for her. But since things were the way they were, I instead used the opportunity to leave before she could say more.

Alicia and Katie didn´t show up at dinner that day. When Lee asked Angelina where they were, she told him that Alicia was really upset about something. Apparently she hadn´t been to Divination either. I didn´t comment on this, but inside I couldn´t help but wonder what was wrong. Had I been too harsh on her?

After I had finished my meal, I went to the common room to get a sample of our latest product, the Confusing Caramels (which are really great stuff, believe me!). To my surprise I was met by Katie, who dragged me into a corner and told me we had to talk. I didn´t have a chance to resist. (Yeah, I know that makes it two girls who have overpowered me in one day, but what can I say? They´re stronger than they look!)

"Listen to me now, George," Katie said sternly. " I know everything that´s been going on between you and Leesh, and I understand that you´re angry, but it´s really about time you made up."

"You know everything? Even..."

"Yeah, I know about Fred. But that´s not what we´re going to talk about now. We´re going to talk about you and Leesh."

"That´s none of your business!" I protested. "Besides, there´s no way I´ll forgive her if she can´t tell me that she´s sorry without yelling at me! She acted like it´s all my fault!"

"Oh, just shut it, will you?" Katie growled. "All right, you won´t forgive her yet. What do you want then?"

I shrugged, not sure of what I wanted.

"Just a proper apology without any yelling, I guess. Then we´ll see."

"Great! I´ll see what I can do!" She grinned and ran off. I stood in the corner for a little longer, feeling confused, but finally I decided that it was probably just Katie being herself. She can act like that, running off in all directions without any particular reason. It wasn´t important. Still, I was a bit worried what she might do.

"George, get over here!" It was Fred.

"What?" I looked at him. He was standing on the doorstep of our dormitory, looking down at something. I walked over to him to see what it was.

It was a rose.

"What´s this? Nobody gives any of us flowers!" he said.

"Perhaps it´s to you from Angelina," I suggested.

"Or to Lee from Katie," he answered.

I bent down to get a closer look at it. There was something white attached to it.

"Hey, looks like there´s a note here," I announced. "Perhaps it can tell us who it´s for."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Pick it up!"

"Me?" I got up quickly. "Why should I do it? You do it."

"Why can´t you do it? It´s not dangerous."

"Then why don´t you do it. It´s probably not for me anyway, it´s for you or Lee. And since Lee isn´t here..."

"And why shouldn´t it be for you? You´re hot as hell, plenty of girls wanna give you flowers."

"Oh, come on, Fred," I said, pretended to be blushing. "You only say that because we´re identical." We both grinned.

"Hey, look who´s coming!" Fred suddenly said. "It´s Lee! The man of the day!"

"Our saviour!" I followed up, instantly knowing what he was up to.

"Ok, guys, what do you want me to do?" Lee said. He really knows us too well.

"Want you to do? Have we asked him to do anything, George?" Fred said, his face a picture of innocence.

"Not as far as I can recall, dear brother."

Lee shook his head. "Sure, whatever you say. Hey, what´s this?" He bent down and picked up the rose. As he read the note, a grin started to spread across his face. After finishing, he handed the note to me.

"It´s for you, mate. Looks like you´ve got yourself a date."

I looked at the note. It was clearly written by a girl, and it said:

_Dear George,_

_Meet me at the Quidditch stadium in the girls´ locker room tomorrow at one. Come alone._

_Love... _

I could feel that I was starting to smile. This looked really promising. Suddenly I was very excited about what the next day would bring. I know I´m hopelessly in love with Alicia and stuff, but you don´t expect me to live in complete celibacy meanwhile, do you?


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I´ll do it in Norwegian today! Jeg heter ikke J.K. Rowling, og jeg eier ikke Harry Potter. Enkelt og greit.

**A/n: **I got reviews! Haha!

Satinzevi89: You´llfind outwhosent itin this chapter.

PsYcHiC SeLiNa: Thanks! Hope this is soon enough.

Crystal: I know what you mean, it´s happened to me too .

Eruaphadiel: Weel, this is your chance to find out who it´s from... Just keep reading!

LPLC: I´m glad you like it. I´ve read your story, and I like it too (though I haven´t gotten around to review it yet).

_Cause you and me_

_We disagree_

_On everything and everyone_

_I only want to be your friend again_

_-Save Ferris_

**George´s PoV:**

I walked slowly across the Quidditch pitch towards the girls´ locker room. Who was waiting for me inside? I wanted to find it out, but at the same time I had a bad feeling about it.

I swallowed hard and opened the door.

To my surprise, I found Alicia waiting for me. When I entered, she got up and moved over to me.

"Alicia?" I said, rather stupidly. "You sent the flower?"

"Oh, stop talking, we have better things to do," she commanded.

"Like what?"

"Like this." At this, she leant forward and kissed me.

The kiss seemed to last for a long time, but at last she broke free. I looked down at her, full of surprise. What was going on? Just as I was about to ask for an explanation, she gave me one. But not one I expected.

"I love you, Fred," she whispered softly as she lifted her face to look at me.

"But I´m not Fred!" I protested. "I´m George!"

"Oh, whatever. You look just the same to me. But it´s him I love, of course," she said matter-of-factly. I was totally shocked.

"Don´t say that, Leesh! It´s not true, it can´t be." I shook my head.

"It´s true, silly!" She snickered at the look on my face. "I love him, I love him, I love him..."

"Oi, George, come on! Big day today!" It was Fred. What was he doing here? I was supposed to meet her alone.

Then Lee came in too. "What are you still doing here? We´ll be late!"

Why couldn´t they leave me alone? I was talking to Alicia... But she was gone, and where she´d been standing now stood our former Qudditch captain Oliver Wood.

"You need to practise more, George. If you lose us the Cup I´ll drown myself in the shower. And by the way, I´m gay," he said gravely.

"Right! That´s enough!" I turned to George and Lee. "I´m gonna wake up now, guys. Bye, Olly. I want you to know that I´ve always known you´re gay."

I opened my eyes and looked up at my brother and Lee. They were standing over me with a bucket of water.

"There´s no need for that! I´m awake!" I yelled before they could tip the bucket over me.

"Are you sure?" Fred asked. "´Cause, you know, we could always do it just to make sure you´re awake..."

"I´m sure! Just let me get up!" I jumped out of bed quickly to keep them from changing their minds.

We went down to breakfast together. I noticed that Alicia wasn´t there, and wondered why. I couldn't remember her missing a single breakfast during our six years of friendship. Of course she could have eaten before, but for some inexplicable reason I didn´t think so. Ok, maybe not inexplicable. She's just not much of a morning person.

Pretty soon, however, I had other things to think about. Felicity and a couple of her friends were coming over to our table, and it looked like they were heading for me.

"Oh, crap!" I groaned. "Not her again."

"Why not? She´s hot!" Fred said, earning a smack from Angelina.

"Ow! What´s that for?" he said indignantly. Angelina muttered something about being the world´s biggest prat´.

Meanwhile, Felicity had reached our table. Sighing, I turned to talk to her.

"Hey, Felicity! What´s up?"

"Oh, nothing much." She smiled at me. "I was just wondering if you would like to... you know... go out with me again?"

I groaned inwardly. I didn´t want to go out with her again, but how was I supposed to tell her that? This time I didn´t have Alicia as an excuse.

"Well... Sure!" I said, trying my best to smile and sound convincing. Apparently it was good enough for her. She smiled happily and then suddenly bent down and kissed me on the cheek. I stiffened, but since she caught me by surprise I didn´t manage to stop her.

"Great!" she announced after getting back up. "I´ll talk to you later!" Then she left, with her friends throwing glances at me and giggling all the way back to their table.

Fred was watching me with an amused look on his face. I glared at him.

"What´s so funny?" I asked grumpily.

"Oh, it´s nothing," he replied quickly before changing the subject. "So, I guess this kinda rules her out as your date."

"Probably." I nodded in agreement. "Of course it could just be a cunning plan to lead my suspicions away from her, but somehow I don´t think so."

"No, I can´t imagine her thinking up something that clever," Angelina commented wryly. "So, what´s this date you´re talking about?"

"Oh, nothing much. Someone left a flower outside our dorm yesterday, asking me to come to the girls´ locker room today. It sounded like a date."

Lee hadn´t said a word during our conversation, as he tends to get very absorbed in his food. If you put a full plate in front of him he´s lost for the world until he has finished it (which doesn´t take him so long). Now, however, he came up to the surface for a quick comment.

"Hey, George, you have any idea who sent it to you?"

I shook my head.

"Too bad. Pass me the toast, will you?"

We all simultaneously rolled our eyes. Never expect anything useful from Lee during a meal.

At half past twelve I started to walk down to the Qudditch pitch. On my way, I passed the lake, and of course Felicity and her friends had to be hanging out there just then. Felicity jumped up at the sight of me and started waving furiously, but somehow managed to keep it graceful. I wonder how she does that. I forced a smile and gave her a small wave, but I didn´t walk over to her. I didn´t think I could handle talking to someone who calls me Georgie twice on one day.

At last I reached the Quidditch pitch. It still wasn´t one, and I wasn´t sure if I should go in yet. I decided to sit down for a while and think.

Who could have sent the rose? I couldn´t think of anyone else who would send it to me. Of course, there were always girls thanks to the Weasley charm fixed that. But at the moment the only one I could think of was Felicity, and apparently she was out of question. I sighed and looked at my watch. Still ten minutes left.

My thoughts once again drifted over to the subject of Alicia Spinnet. She was the girl of my dreams and I knew it. I had known it for ages. It was something about her smile, about the way she looked, about the way she teased me when I had done something stupid. She had been my best girl friend since first year, and I could still remember the shock I´d gotten when I understood that I wanted her to be something more. I wanted her to be my girlfriend.

The realization had come to me one day at Quidditch practise. I had been trying to teach her how to use a Beater´s club when she was hit by an unexpected Bludger, which caused her to fall from her broom. She hadn´t been hurt, but from that moment I knew that it was her, and only her, I wanted.

For a long time I had tried to deny it, hoping that it would pass. Then I had started dating other girls to forget her. But when I realized that it wouldn´t pass, and that I couldn´t forget her, I had just settled with being her best friend. I had never dared to make a move on her. Up till now.

Suddenly, the object of my thoughts came out from the girls´ locker room. When she saw me sitting there, she stopped, startled. I quickly got up.

"Alicia? What´s going on?"

She looked almost like she was going to faint, and I assumed that something was wrong with her.

Just as I was about to ask her if she was all right, she cried out: "This wasn't how it was supposed to be!"

"What?" I said, confused.

"You shouldn´t have been here this early! Now it´s all ruined!" There were tears in her eyes, I noticed.

"Leesh, calm down. What´s ruined?"

"Everything! I was going to surprise you, and tell you that I´m sorry. But now I can´t!"

"Of course you can," I assured her. "Just go back inside, and I´ll come in, and we´ll pretend that this didn´t happen." She nodded, still teary-eyed. I smiled at her and shoved her gently towards the door.

After this, I didn´t think that I would be surprised by whatever I was going to find in the locker room. Upon entering, however, I found that I was wrong.

The room was completely filled with roses, except for one wall, which was decorated with a large banner bearing the word "Sorry". After taking it in, I turned to Alicia, who was standing in a corner.

"See, this was how it was supposed to be," she began nervously before I could think of anything to say. "I was going to hide behind the door then step out as soon as you had seen this, and tell you how sorry I am..."

"There´s no need for that, Leesh," I interrupted her.

"What?" she said, and now it was she who looked confused.

"I´ve forgiven you," I said. "I forgave you the moment I saw you coming out of the door."

"Oh... Of course, you called me Leesh! You haven´t done that since... Since the Ball." There was an awkward silence, which was broken when she threw her arms around me and hugged me.

"I´m so sorry, George. I really shouldn´t have done it."

"I´m sorry, too. I shouldn´t have been so stubborn when you tried to talk to me."

She laughed softly and let go of me. "You've always been stubborn, George Weasley. And so am I. If it hadn´t been for Katie, I probably never would have talked to you again."

"Really? What did she do?" I asked, curious.

"Well, after my attempt to say sorry, I was so mad at you that I never wanted to see you again. Katie convinced me that I should give you another chance. She was the one who came up with this plan, too."

"She did?" I was impressed. I really needed to give Katie more credit (That one´s for you, Lillemor!).

"Yeah," Alicia answered. "Though at first, she suggested that I should hide in your dormitory and jump out when you came in. She only gave in after I reminded her that you have roommates who would probably be scared to death if I jumped on them." She grinned.

"That´s more like the Katie I know," I agreed and chuckled at the thought of Lee´s face if Alicia had jumped out from behind the door when he entered the room.

There was another silence, not awkward this time. It was a friendly silence, like the ones we used to have before the fight. I´ve always liked to be silent with Alicia.

"You know," she said at last, looking up at me, "Just in case it makes you feel better... It was a really good kiss."

I laughed and pulled her into another hug. Perhaps I could live with just being her best friend. It was very unlikely, but I could at least try. I owed our friendship that much.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I own Harry Potter! All you fancy lawyers, in your face! I´m a succesful lawyer myself, not just some random 15-year-old who´s humbly borrowing JK´s characters... All right, I admit it, I am. You look right through me, don´t you?

**A/n:** Well, this chapter is sorta short and crappy. Sorry about that. Still, it had to be done, and it could have turned out worse.

Eruaphadriel: I´m quite happy with it myself, actually.

Satinzevi89: To tell the truth, I am a bit crazy. But don´t tell anyone I admitted it. The beginning was meant to confuse people, though my best friend keeps insisting she understood it was a dream. Maybe that´s not so weird.

Ins Pins. Two reviews! Thanks!

PsYcHiC SeLiNa: Are you psychic or something:P

Believe-in-yourself4ever: Yeah, I kinda figured you were Crystal. Very very nice review, I like it when people tell me specifically what they liked.

KitKat001: Ooh, I loved your review! I´m not that confident about my writing style, so it´s great to get reviews like yours. It made me feel very happy with myself.

BTW, I´ve read a lot of your stories now, and I love them, especially Twice Over.

LPLC: Cool review! I´ve never had one in Filipino before. I just had to put that Oliver is gay, I think it´s such a funny thought )

Bel-o-kiu-kiuni: Non, je n´oublie pas toi! Just my little school French there. I have a feeling that it´s grammatically wrong, but w/e. I never said I was any good. Anyway, I promise there´ll be more crying and tears! Staring in this very chapter.

Replicafan: That makes two! I´m overwhelmed. Thank you!

_Such a cute girl_

_I´m so jealous_

_I wish I looked exactly like her_

_What´s it like to have that body?_

_I´m gawking while I wonder_

_-No Doubt_

**Alicia´s PoV:**

George and I walked together back to the castle. I still felt a little awkward around him, but I figured that it would get better soon. After all, we´d just made up, so I didn´t expect things to be back to normal straight away.

Anyway, it was good just to be with him. I hadn´t realized until now how much I´d missed him. He was so funny and smart (though he didn´t always show it), and being his partner made Potions less unbearable.

"Georgie!" The pretty blonde Hufflepuff girl who´d gone mental when George didn´t take her to the ball jumped up from her place in the hall when we passed her. She scowled at me, not surprising considering our last encounter, and then flashed bright and shiny smile for George.

"About that date of ours, Georgie... I was thinking we could make it the next Hogsmeade weekend? Just hang around, visit Zonkos and Honeydukes... Wouldn´t that be cool?" She batted her eyelashes. I tried to keep the look of disgust off my face.

"Sounds fun," George replied. "When´s the next Hogsmeade weekend?"

I looked up at him, surprised. I´d thought he didn´t like this girl, but apparently he did. Well, maybe no brain was this year´s fashion.

"It´s actually next weekend." The girl again flashed her abnormally white teeth in a smile. "So, how about it?"

"Sure. But now I really need to get back to the common room. See you later!" With this, he grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the stairs.

"So, you´re going on a date with her?" I said in a light tone as we hurried away.

"Yeah, she asked me and I figured I might as well go. She´s really pretty and stuff and she seems to like me," he answered.

I nodded to this, but couldn´t help wondering if he really liked this girl. There was no way she was good enough for him – she was too stupid. But of course, if he liked her, it was none of my business. I wasn´t going to ruin our friendship again just because I didn´t like the girl he was dating.

Back in the common room, we found Katie waiting for us. When she saw that we came in together, she squealed excitedly and ran over to greet us.

"You made up!" She grinned and looked at me, obviously very happy with herself. "So, was my plan brilliant or what?"

"Of course, Katie. Your plans always are." George laughed. "Although I´m glad you didn´t convince her to hide in my dorm. Lee probably would´ve had a heart attack."

Katie blushed, but her self-confidence didn´t seem to falter. "Still, you´re back together. That´s what matters the most."

I looked over to George, who was laughing at Katie, teasing her about her boyfriend being her second priority. He was still holding my arm, but he didn´t seem to notice it or think that there was anything weird about it.

I smiled to myself. We were definitely back together.

xxxx

Hogsmeade weekend was coming up quickly, but I wasn´t looking forward to it as much as usual. This was partly because the thought of George´s date kept nagging me for some reason, and partly because I had a feeling I´d be stuck as fifth wheel with the two happy couples.

And I was right. When we first arrived, we all headed to Zonko´s together and had a great time there. Lee was in one of his funny moods, where he kept hitting people for no reason, telling them that he is a cow and generally acting like he´s insane. Which he probably is, come to think of it.

We then headed over to Honeydukes and that´s where things started to go wrong. Lee had finally gotten back to normal, but now he and Katie were acting kinda... indecent. And after Fred had told them in strong words to get a room, they disappeared, leaving me with Fred and Angelina. It´s a wonderful world, isn´t it?

With Katie and Lee having thus deserted us, we went into the Three Broomsticks to grab a Butterbeer and warm up a bit. I went to get the Butterbeers while the others tried to find a table.

As I was heading back to the table, I couldn´t help overhearing what Fred and Angelina were saying.

"You know Angie, I really like you," Fred said. He sounded nervous.

"Yes?" Apparently Angelina had noticed his tone too.

"I just wanted to say that..." He hesitated then said softly, "Angel, I love you."

I froze on the spot and put down the Butterbeers on the nearest table, which earned me some weird looks from the people who were already sitting there. What was going on? They´re too young to be that serious!

"I love you too," Angelina answered. She leant across the table and kissed him. I turned abruptly and stumbled away. I had to get away to think clearly.

Finally I stopped outside the Shrieking Shack, sinking down on a bare patch of ground. He loved her. That was the bottomline of it all. I´d never even had a chance, and I never would...

I sat there for a long time, crying my heart out. But after a while I heard a sound which made me lift my head. Somebody was coming.

**George´s PoV:**

"Georgie! Come have a look at this!" I turned to Felicity, who was holding up another item she wanted me to see. I smiled and made my way over to her.

The date had been much better than I´d expected. I´d had a quite a lot of fun. If Felicity just could´ve refrained from her stupid habit of nicknaming me, I might even have liked her. But as it were, I wasn´t sure I wanted to go out with her again.

"Let´s go up to the Shrieking Shack!" she said now. "It´s so romantic up there!"

I gaped at her. There are many words I´ve heard used to describe the Shrieking Shack, but romantic is not one of them.

"Well... Of course," I said at last. "The Shrieking Shack it is, then!"

She insisted on holding my hand all the way up to the Shack. I didn´t mind this too much as long as she kept quiet, but I could still feel a surge of annoyance towards her. She was acting like she owned me! But I had agreed to go on this date, I reminded myself. It was my own fault that I was with her.

"Georgie?" Felicity suddenly said. "What are you doing?" I realized that we had reached the Shack, and that I had almost walked past it. I grinned stupidly.

"Well, I´m... er... Can you stop calling me Georgie?" I hadn´t meant to say it, it just came out because I was looking for something to say. Still, it felt good to have said it. If only her reaction had been different.

"Stop calling you Georgie? I thought you liked being called that!"

"Actually, I don´t. So if you´ll stop, you´ll make me very, very happy."

She looked confused for a moment then smiled. "Sure. If that´s what you want, it´s no problem."

"Cool!" I said happily. "I like you much better already!"

It was only when her mouth fell open that I realized what I´d just said. Quickly, I put my arms around her and kissed her deeply on the mouth. It´s what they call damage control.

**Alicia´s PoV:**

I watched in shock as George kissed the Hufflepuff girl. As soon as I heard the footsteps approaching I had scrambled behind some trees, determined not to let anyone see me cry. But I couldn´t resist peeking out to see who the people disturbing me were. And of course they had to be the two last people I wanted to meet right now.

George seemed like he was wandering around in his own world, while the girl was trying to get his attention. I smiled to myself, he couldn´t be that wrapped up in his date if he didn´t even realize it when she was talking to him. Unless of course he was busy thinking about her. About how pretty she was and how she "really seemed to like him"... Suddenly I felt worried again.

And I was right to worry. They hadn´t exchanged more than a couple of words before George was suddenly kissing her. I didn´t want to watch it, but at the same time I couldn´t tear my eyes away. I felt some sort of sick fascination. And all I could think was:

He got over me this fast?

**A/n:** I´m sorry to tell you that this will be the last chapter in quite a while, the reason being me going on holiday. I´m going to France! Yay! And then to Wales! Yay again! I leave this Saturday, so there´ll be no more chapters before I return. But I´ll try to write a lot while I´m gone, and July 12 I´m back!


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** I still don´t own Harry Potter. Big surprise.

**A/n:** I´ve read the Half-blood Prince! Amazing book. Made me cry, though. But I laughed a lot too.

George Weasley Lover: Thanks!

Eruaphadriel: blushes That´s very nice of you to say. Have a cookie! Oh, and there´ll be much more confusion for Alicia in this chapter.

Kitkat001: Fanfiction can be evil, can´t they? Your review made me laugh, you´re really straightforward... but I agree, she totally should.

Believe-in-yourself4ever: I had lots of fun! I´ve taken a lot of mental pictures. Of the Eiffel Tower, Mona Lisa, Champs Elysees... And I´ve taken some real pictures too, with my beloved digital camera.

PsYcHiC SeLiNa: Yeah, I feel bad for her too... And I´m the one writing this story1

Satinzevi89: I´m actually almost normal compared to some of my friends... the keyword being almost. My sister insists that I´m completely crazy, but she´s evil, so don´t listen to her.

InsPins2011: Sorry to have kept you waiting, but I´m back now!

LCH8292: So many nice words... You´re making me blush.****

Maria Casey Wood: I think girls are even worse than boys sometimes, but they can be mean too. BTW, your review convinced me to get this out now. A cookie to you for that!

Just some shameless self-promotion... I have a new one-shot out! It´s called "Feels A Bit Like Love", and it´s kinda GeorgeAliciaFred. Thanks to LPLC (you were the first!), Kitkat001, Eruaphadriel, Jagged Epiphany, Mrs. Ronald Weasley and Carrietella for reviewing it. They all say it´s good, so why don´t you check it out?

**Alicia´s PoV:**

A myriad of thoughts tumbled through my mind as I made my way back from Hogsmeade. Fred telling Angelina that he loved her, George kissing another girl... Suddenly I felt very lonely. Fred and Angelina had each other, the same with Katie and Lee, and now George apparently had that girl whose name I really wish I could remember. And whom did I have? No one. Of course, deep down I knew I´d always have my friends, but at the moment it felt like I´d always be stuck as third wheel with the couples.

Back in my dorm I went straight to bed and closed the curtains behind me. None of the others were back yet, so I had good opportunity to think. But all I could do was watch the two scenes I´d witnessed replay themselves in my head. Whenever I closed my eyes I saw either Fred or George with a girl who wasn´t me. I was definitely thinking too much about those Weasley twins.

What I couldn´t understand was why the thought of George took up as much of my mind as Fred did. After all it was Fred I was in love with. I had actually had a small crush on George in our first year, but that ended brutally when he told me he thought girls with freckles were ugly. He apologized for it later, but by then my affection had turned to Oliver Wood. Therefore, even though George was a very good friend, I´d never considered him to be boyfriend-material. But then why did it bother me so much that he was kissing a girl? He´d done it plenty of times before.

It had to be because of his crush on me, I decided. No one had had a crush on me before, I wasn´t pretty enough. So the only reason I was upset was that his crush on me had passed. Besides, he was my best friend, and I wanted someone better for him. That was all.

By the time I´d finished thinking all this through, the others had returned. For a while I just stayed in bed, hoping I wouldn´t be disturbed. Then Angelina ripped the curtains open. I blinked a couple of times, trying to make it look like she´d woken me.

"Hey, Leesh, there you are! What happened to you? Fred and I were worried, you know!"

"Um... I got a really bad headache?" I offered hopefully.

"Yeah right. Tell me the truth, now," she commanded. I searched my brain for inspiration, but none came. Luckily, our roommate Patricia gave me some help.

"If she was hanging out with you and Fred, I can understand why she left," she said. "I mean, no offense, but you probably made her feel very much like the third wheel."

"That´s it, yeah," I said hastily. "I thought you´d like some time alone, so I left. And I really did have a headache."

Angelina still didn´t look utterly convinced, but I was saved from further questioning by Katie bursting into the room.

"There are hamburgers for dinner!" she annonced happily. Katie has a great fascination for all that weird Muggle food, especially hamburgers. I don´t get it, they´re not that fantastic. But Katie forces us all into eating them.

"I think I´ll skip dinner," I said, looking straight at Katie.

"What? But there are hamburgers!"

"I just don´t fancy hamburgers today." Come on, I prayed silently. Understand that I need to talk to you.

She must have understood what I wanted, cause she told the others to go ahead while she talked me out of my mood. As soon as they were out of the room, she started talking.

"What´s wrong with you? Why don´t you want burgers? They´re delicious. The bread is a bit crispy on the outside, just the way I like it, and there´s this single tomato slice on it. And don´t get me started on the meat! It´s..."

"Katie," I interrupted her, "they´re out of earshot now. You can stop talking about burgers."

"All right, then," she said, a bit sulkily. "What did you want to talk about?"

I told her everything that had happened to me that day. When I came to the part where Fred told Angelina he loved her, tears started streaming from my eyes. I cried through the rest of the story.

"So Fred said to Angelina that he loves her? That´s so sweet!" Katie exclaimed when I was finished. I shot her a death glare.

"No it isn´t! It´s terrible!"

"Yes, of course..." She pulled me into a hug, and we sat in silence for a while.

"You know," she said at last, "we are missing the burgers."

"Yeah, I know." Hamburgers were the last things on my mind right now, but I could tell that Katie was still thinking about them. "I just don´t care much for burgers at the moment."

"No, me neither," she agreed quickly. A little too quickly.

There was another short silence, again broken by Katie.

"Leesh?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if I... You know..." I couldn´t help laughing.

"It´s okay, Katie. You can go eat your burgers," I told her.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" She was by the door so quickly I could have sworn she hadn´t crossed the space between, but there she paused for a moment.

"Can I ask you a question, Leesh?"

"Sure."

"Why are you so upset about George?"

I stared at her, unable to remember any of the reasons I had thought of. She flashed me a grin and disappeared, leaving me once again wondering why I couldn´t get George off my mind.

xxxxx

I stayed in bed for the rest of the day, and obviously Katie had given explanation as to why, cause nobody disturbed me. The next morning I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and go down to breakfast. But when I got there, the seat next to George where I usually sat was taken by the blonde Hufflepuff. George didn´t seem to mind either.

I sat down by Katie, Lee and Angelina instead. Lee was absorbed in his food, as usual, but the other two were chatting happily away about George´s new girlfriend.

"I don´t like her," Angelina declared firmly. "She´s all over him, it´s plain disgusting."

Katie nodded. "I don´t understand what he sees in her. She´s pretty, all right, but she´s nothing special. He should´ve found someone better." For some reason they both glanced at me.

"I´m not sure about that," I lied. "He looks pretty happy, doesn´t he?" The others looked at each other for a moment, then Angelina did the weirdest thing. She leant forward and patted my hand sympathetically.

"It´s okay, Leesh. You don´t have to deny your feelings to us."

"Huh?" What was she talking about? I caught Katie´s guilty expression and understood what was going on.

"Katie. You and me. Outside. Now." I grabbed her arm and dragged her with me, ignoring her protests.

Once we were outside, I let go and looked at her, arms crossed.

"What the hell have you been telling her?" I asked. "Why is she acting all weird?"

"Er... I might´ve told her that you are..." She hesitated.

"That I am what?"

"Well... That you´re in love with George."

"What?" I yelled. "I´m not in love with George!"

"I know, I know!" she said hurriedly. "But right then it seemed like a good explanation. And you have to admit she fell for it. She isn´t likely to find out the truth now."

"I guess so," I sighed. "But I really wish you could have given her a different explanation."

We went back to breakfast with Angelina (who was all sympathy) and Lee (who hadn´t noticed that we´d been gone). When Fred came in and greeted Angelina with a kiss, I stayed strong and ignored it. I was proud of myself.

xxxxx

The next few days were difficult. Wherever I went, there seemed to be a Weasley twin with a girl. At times, I found myself wishing there were fewer Weasley twins in the world. Then again, if that was the case they wouldn´t be twins...

But no matter what was going on with me, school was still on, and I had to keep up with the enormous amount of homework the sixth years were given.

One afternoon I was sitting in the library, working on a particularly difficult Potions essay. Since the lucky bastards I had for friends either didn´t take Potions or waited with their homework to the last minute, I was alone. I had just finished the essay when I heard Felicity´s (remembered her name at last!) voice. Not particularly feeling like seeing her, I stuffed my things in my bag and hid behind a shelf. She´d probably just walk past me, and then I would be free to leave.

Of course, in real life things never work out the way you want them to. Instead of just walking past, Felicity and a group of her friends sat down at the table I´d just left. I cursed my bad luck, and contented myself with listening to their conversation, which apparently was about boys.

"I mean it, he´s crazy about me!" one of them said. "He´ll ask me out any day now!" the others ooh-ed and aah-ed. I pretended to be puking.

"And how´s your little plan working, Felicity?" another asked. "Any results yet?"

"Oh yes," Felicity said proudly. "He´s definitely paying more attention to me now. I told you it would work."

I frowned. What was she talking about? Did she think that George payed too little attention to her? No, she couldn´t think that. He spent almost all his spare time with her and partnered her whenever they had classes together, for Merlin´s sake! But then whom was she talking about? Soon, however, I got the answer to that question.

"I feel a bit sorry for George, though," the first girl commented. "I mean, he has obviously no idea what´s going on, has he? And he is cute, you have to admit that."

"Of course he´s cute, and hot too. But he just doesn´t reach my standard," Felicity explained. "Roger, on the other hand, is perfect. He´s cute, hot and rich, and he isn´t a mischiefmaker like George. There´s no way George can match him. And when it comes to that Fleur girl..."

Anger welled up inside me. How dared she use my George to make Roger Davies jealous? And to say that Roger was better than George! Roger didn´t even hold a candle to him! I didn´t wait to hear the rest of their discussion, but stepped out from my hiding place and marched straight up to her. The rest of the group stared at me with shocked faces, but I ignored them.

"You bitch!" I began. "What the hell do you think you´re doing? I heard all you said, and there´s no way I´ll let you use George like that! I´m going to tell everyone what a lying, sneaking bitch you are, and then we´ll see how well your little plan will work! I´m sure Fleur would like to hear what you say about her, too," I added as an afterthought.

But to my surprise, Felicity didn´t look scared or started begging me not to tell. Instead, she smiled!

"Actually," she said, "I don´t think you´ll tell anyone anything."

"What? Why not?" I stared at her. She had to be insane. Of course I´d tell! Why shouldn´t I?

"Because if you tell anyone about my plan, I´ll tell everyone who you´re in love with."

I was stunned. How did she know?

"What do you mean?" I finally managed to get out.

There was triumph in her smile now.

"Don´t you mean: How do you know?" she said mockingly. "I followed George at the ball, little miss perfect Spinnet. That´s how I know. I heard everything, every word you said. I wonder what your friends would say if they knew."

"You wouldn´t," I breathed.

"Oh yes, I would. And I´d be happy to do it." Laughing, she got up and and left. Her friends smirked at me and followed her.

Now what? I couldn´t let her do this to George. But I definitely couldn´t let it get out that I was in love with Fred. I had no idea what to do.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** I don´t own Harry Potter. If you haven´t understood that yet, you´re awfully slow.

**A/n:** Sorry it took so long before I got this out, but it´s not my fault. A thunderstorm destroyed my Internet access, so I´ve been off the net for ages now. Horror!

Eruaphadriel: Evil? Me? Hey, you´re the one who let Angelina date Percy! But since you think it´s nice work, I won´t hex you.

PsYcHiC SeLiNa: I hate Felicity too! I think she´s evil and should be punished. And I´m the one writing this story.

Maria Casey Wood: I got it after reading it a couple of times! And I think you may be right about it. But who knows what the future will bring? My guess is lots of chocolate )

Isy Black: I totally agree. How can she not be in love with George? It is a mystery.

XxHellzAngelxX: That´s good to hear, I´m always happy when someone think my story´s good!

Cookies to Giddyupgal, Maria Casey Wood (I put extra chocolate in yours!), XxHellzAngelxX and LCH8292 for reviewing "Feels A Bit Like Love". Thank you!

**George´s PoV:**

Felicity was beginning to annoy me.

Ever since our kiss in Hogsmeade she´d been convinced we were a couple and she never left me alone. She´d even taken over Alicia´s seat next to me at meals, but since it didn´t seem to bother Alicia I hadn´t said anything. Yet. But if Felicity continued cooing over me the way she did now, I was afraid I´d tell her where to stick it.

On top of that, the last few days it had felt like Alicia was avoiding me. I had no idea why, one day we´d been best friends and the next she wouldn´t even look at me. She acted like she was feeling guilty about something. I hadn´t talked to her about it, but when she partnered off with a Hufflepuff who also happens to be the most boring guy at school instead of me in Potions, I decided I had to find out what was going on. Later the same afternoon, I found her in the common room chatting with Angelina and asked if I could have a word with her.

"Leesh, why are you-" was all I got to say before she interrupted me.

"George, I need to tell you something." She hesitated, seeming very nervous.

"Go on," I said encouragingly.

"It´s about your girlfriend."

"Who?"

"You have that many?" She grinned for a split second, but then became serious again. "I´m talking about Felicity, of course."

"Oh, her." I had forgotten all about Felicity for a moment. I suppose it means I´m a terrible boyfriend and so on, but with Alicia standing in front of me she just didn´t seem important. "What about her?"

"I really don´t want to be the one to tell you this, but you have to hear it..." Quickly, she told me everything she had overheard Felicity saying: That I was nothing but a substitute to her, someone she used to make Roger Davies jealous. Roger Davies, of all people!

"So..." I said when she´d finished. "She´s just using me?"

"Yes." Alicia sighed. "I´m really sorry, but I felt that I had to tell you."

"It´s okay," I assured her. "I´m glad you told me."

Actually, I wasn´t that upset. I was a bit hurt, of course, but I was also grateful for being given a reason to dump Felicity. She was really getting on my nerves, but Alicia didn´t have to know that. She had rejected me, and I didn´t want her to think I still was in love with her. Which I was, of course, but I had no plans of telling her that.

"What are you going to do?" she asked after a while.

"Well... I guess I´m gonna dump her." She nodded in understanding. "You know what´s funny?" I said. "I´ve always thought she was stupid. Who would have believed she could come up with a plan that clever?"

"I certainly wouldn´t," she agreed. "I´ve always thought the only thing she was interested in was clothes and boys. Guess I´ve underestimated her."

"Looks like we both have," I replied.

"George?" Alicia said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

She blushed. "Um... Forget it."

I looked at her curiously. Again I had the feeling that she was hiding something from me, but I dismissed it. It was probably just regular paranoia.

xxxxx

The next day Felicity and I had planned to have a romantic picnic at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Or more precisely, she had planned it. I had agreed to it to make her happy, though I couldn´t understand why she thought it was such a romantic place. Anyway, I had decided that this would be a good opportunity to break up with her.

When we arrived at the top of the Tower, a cold wind was blowing. However, Felicity didn´t even seem to notice it. She just squealed excitedly at the view. I didn´t bother to comment that she´d been up here hundreds of times before.

"Felicity," I said after she had settled down and stopped pointing out things to me, "there´s something we need to talk about."

"Really? And what could that be?" She looked up at me from where she´d sat down. She had put out a red and white blanket and was now busy placing food on it. For a moment she looked so sweet and innocent that I almost changed my mind. But only almost. Honestly, Roger Davies!

"I´m breaking up with you," I told her.

Her eyes widened.

"You´re what?"

"Breaking up."

"But... Why?"

"Because you´re just using me to make Roger Davies jealous," I said lightly. "By the way, you do know he´ll never notice you as long as Fleur is around, don´t you?"

Suddenly she was on her feet, looking furious. Her fists were clenched at her sides, and her cheeks were red. I almost expected sparks to fly from her eyes. She didn´t excactly look sweet and innocent anymore.

"How do you know? Who told you?" she demanded to know.

"Alicia did. She heard you in the library, talking to your friends about your little plan."

"Oh, she told you, did she?" Felicity´s voice grew cold, and her eyes narrowed. "Well, she can´t say I didn´t warn her!" With that, she was gone.

I looked after her, puzzled. What did she mean? What had she warned Alicia about? I had a feeling Alicia was hiding something from me. I didn´t have the faintest idea what it was, but I fully intended to find it out. And I figured the best way to do it was to go straight to the source, Alicia herself.

However, this was easier said than done. I spent three hours just trying to find Alicia, and when I found her and told her what Felicity had said, she paled visibly, but refused to say what it was all about. Instead, she kept telling me I´d find out for myself soon enough. Then she ran off to find Katie, leaving me as confused as before.

xxxxx

But like she had said, I found out for myself the next day. I first noticed that something was was going on when Fred and I entered the Great Hall for breakfast. Where we went, heads turned to look at us and I heard a distinct buzz of whispers. There were even a few people who pointed at us.

"Forge?" Fred said. "Have you done any big, spectacular pranks without letting me in on them?"

I shook my head. "Have you?"

"No. I believe we´re in kind of a dry spell, actually."

"Yeah, I think you´re right. We´ve got to do something about that. But anyway, why the hell are people looking at us if neither of us has done anything?"

He shrugged and we sat down. I could see Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown whispering and giggling. When they noticed I was looking at them, they both blushed, but kept giggling.

Then Alicia entered the hall and I understood that Fred and I hadn´t really gotten any attention. She was by herself, probably because she´d overslept, and practically every head in the Hall turned to look at her as she appeared. For a moment everything was quiet, then a new and louder buzz of whispering was unleashed. Alicia paled, turned and fled. As I got up to follow her, I saw that Felicity and all of her friends seemed to be laughing.

I caught up with Alicia on the second floor. As soon as she saw me coming, she started running, but I managed to get hold of her arm before she could escape.

"Let me go!" she demanded angrily.

"Only if you´ll tell me what´s going on."

"It´s none of your business! Anyway, you´ll find out eventually," she said sullenly.

"It bloody well is my business! When Fred and I came to breakfast, everybody stared at us! I think I have the right to know why."

Alicia sighed. " She´s told everyone."

"Who´s told everyone what?"

"Your dear girlfriend have told everyone that I´m in love with Fred! Does that answer your question?" she said, trying to look angry, but I could see that she was nearly crying.

"What? But how did she know?"

"She followed you at the Yule Ball. She heard everything we said, and now she´s told!"

"That´s what she warned you about? Why didn´t you tell me?" I couldn´t understand why she had hidden this for me. If only she´d told me! Then none of this would have happened.

"Maybe I should have told you. But..." She looked down, obviously not sure if she really wanted to say this. "I guess I didn´t want you to not break up with her just to protect me from being hurt."

What is one supposed to say to something like that? I couldn´t think of anything, except for the not very articulate: "Oh, Leesh..." However, this seemed to be quite enough, as she burst out in tears and almost threw herself in my arms. I held her tightly while she sobbed on my shoulder.

"What do you think Angie´ll say?" she sniffled when the worst crying was over. "She´s going to hate me forever, I know it."

"Of course not," I said gently. "You´re best friends, she won´t hate you. "

"Yes she will. She´ll be so angry she´ll never talk to me again, and no one will ever speak to me again and I´ll be an outcast with no friends..."'

"Alicia, shut up," I interrupted. "Angie is not going to hate you. You´ll not be an outcast, and as for not having friends... D´you really think I´d let you down?"

She smiled through the tears. "I guess not. I´m so glad I have you, George. You´re the best."

"I know," I said and grinned at her. "Haven´t you realized that before now? I´m disappointed with you, Miss Spinnet. I thought you were smart." She giggled and I had to fight a sudden urge to kiss her. _No kissing of best friends,_ I reminded myself. _That only leads to trouble._ If only she wasn´t so damn beautiful...

But before I could do something I´d probably regret, she let go of me.

"I´d better go get some food from the kitchen, I´m starving," she said. I nodded dumbly, unable to think of anything but how much I wanted to kiss her.

"Wanna come?"

"Um... Sure. I didn´t have time to eat much myself." Very gallantly, I offered her my arm, and we went off in search of something to eat.

**A/n:** I just noticed I only need eight more reviews to reach fifty! Please please please let me have those and I´ll love you forever! And I´ll consider doing a sequel to this. So hit that little button and tell me what you think!


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** I don´t own Harry Potter. Honestly.

**A/n:** I´m really sorry it has been so long! My computer committed suicide and I didn´t get a new one till last week.

On a happier note, I will do a sequel to this story! I got more than 50 reviews, so I feel obliged to do it (and, of course, I want to do it myself). Big cheers for Believe- in-yourself4ever, my 50th reviewer! You rock! And so do the rest of you who reviewed.

One last thing before we get started: I´ve gotten a LiveJournal! I´ll try to use it to keep you updated on how my writing is going.

**Alicia´s PoV:**

After having breakfast, I decided to spend the rest of this horrible day hiding in the library. I have a favourite spot there which is very sheltered, you wouldn´t find it unless you knew where it was. George was the one who showed it to me the first time and since then I´ve loved spending time there when I need to be alone. So of course I should have known that my friends would know where to find me. The thought just never crossed my mind. Not until...

"ALICIA VERONICA SPINNET!"

_Uh-oh_. I winced. It was Angelina, and she was using middle names. That´s never a good sign, as she knows that

"Um, hi Angie! I would love to stay and talk to you, but I´ve got some pressing business to attend to..." I attempted to leave, but she caught me before I had any chance of getting away.

"Sit down!" she snarled and pointed at the chair I´d just left. I sat. I have yet to meet someone who can stand up against an angry Angelina Johnson.

"Is it true?"

I didn´t exactly feel like saying yes, that´d just be stupid. But saying no would be lying. And you don´t lie to your best friend. So I did what any sensible person would´ve done: I pretended I didn´t know what she was talking about.

"Is what true?" I tried my best to look innocent, but Angelina saw right through me.

"Don´t try that innocent look on me!" she said angrily. "Lee´s the only one who falls for that. I didn´t fall for it in first year, and I most definitely won´t fall for it now. So I´ll ask you one more time: Is it true that you´re in love with Fred?"

"Yes," I whispered, staring at my feet. I didn´t dare to look at Angelina, as I expected her to claw my eyes out.

But she didn´t. Instead, she was silent for what felt like a very long time. When I finally dared to lift my eyes to her, her face was cleared of all expression.

It seemed like an eternity passed before she spoke again

"I can´t believe this," was all she said, but her tone said it all.

"Look, Angie just let me explain..." I tried desperately.

"I don´t want your explanations! You lied to me. How do you explain that? I had to hear it from Lavender Brown! D´you think I enjoyed that?"

"I wanted to tell you!" I was on the verge of tears now.

"Then why didn´t you?" She shook her head slowly. "I thought you trusted me. You do know that´s what best friends are supposed to do, right?" With those words, she was gone.

I blinked a couple of times. This was all wrong! Angelina wasn´t supposed to act like that. She should be furious and try to rip out my hair, not stay all calm and talk about trust in that sad voice.

Anyway, the library was apparently out of the question when it came to hiding places. I had to go and find somewhere else.

xxxxx

For a while I walked aimlessly through the castle, hiding every time I thought someone was coming. At last I settled in an empty classroom on the third floor where I often go when I want to be away from people. However, this time it didn´t work. I hadn´t been there for more than five minutes when the door opened and Fred stepped inside.

I closed my eyes and groaned. When I opened them again, he was grinning.

"Why, Leesh, aren´t you happy to see me?" I scowled at him. How could he act like this was just some big, immensely funny joke?

"You know perfectly well why I don´t really feel like talking to you now!" I said heatedly. "I´ve just been humiliated in front of the whole school, my best friend hates me and…." I didn´t finish the sentence.

He sat down next to me. For a while we sat in silence, neither of us knowing what to say. I felt incredibly embarrassed, but I couldn´t think of anything to say that would make things better. At last, I took a deep breath and said "Look-" the exact same moment that Fred said "Leesh, I-". We both stopped speaking rather abruptly, and I blushed.

"You were saying?" I asked him after a moment.

He looked a bit uncomfortable. "I guess you know why I came here…" I nodded, urging him to go on. "Um… Do you really love me?" He finally blurted out.

"Love you?" I said surprised. The expression just didn´t seem right to me. "I don´t know…" Then I realized what I was saying. Did I really mean this? I couldn´t have fallen out of love with Fred, could I? That wasn´t possible!

Fred looked every bit as surprised as I felt. "You don´t know?" he asked. "Then why´s everybody telling me that you do?"

I shrugged. "Well… Maybe I have a crush on you… But you belong to Angelina and there´s nothing I can do about it. I might´ve sort of given up on you."

"You have?" I was too ashamed about having to admit that I had a crush on him to look at him, but he sounded kinda relieved.

"You don´t have to sound so happy about it," I said defensively. "Most guys would be flattered to hear that a girl liked them, even when they don´t like her back!"

"Of course I´m flattered. But I don´t like you in that way. No offence, you´re pretty, but Angie would kill me." I didn´t have to look at him to know that he was grinning that Weasley grin of his, and I couldn´t suppress a smile of my own.

"So… Are we okay?" I asked.

"Definitely. We´re friends, after all."

xxxxx

About an hour later I was sitting in the kitchen, trying to do my Potions homework. Occasionally I dropped my quill by accident to make the house elves happy by letting them pick it up. I had turned down all the food they´d offered me, so I figured I had to make it up to them somehow.

I was just wondering if Angelina would hate me any less if I failed Potions, cause with this essay I would, when a voice behind me said: "Leesh?"

I sighed and turned around. It was Lee.

"Hi, Lee."

He noticed my lack of enthusiasm. "Why so happy?"

"Oh, you know… Potions essay," I excused myself. "Why are you here?"

"I was hungry," he said and grinned. I should have known.

"Well, help yourself!" I gestured to the food all over the kitchen, and he got right to it. For a while all I heard from him was chewing. Then, finally, he said: "Can I ask you a question, Leesh?"

Suddenly I couldn´t take it anymore. Everyone had been after me all day, and now Lee had joined in on it too. Enough was enough.

"Yes, it´s true!" I shouted. "I am in love with Fred! I used George as a replacement for him! I truly, deeply regret it, but it´s still true! Can people please leave me alone now?" Having at last gotten this off my back, I stood still, waiting to be judged.

Lee looked slightly shocked at my outburst. "Um… I was actually just wondering if you know where they keep the ice cream. But of course, that other stuff was nice to know, too."

"Oh, right," I said and started to cry.

Lee sat down next to me and patted me a bit awkwardly on the back. "Wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head.

"Sure? You know you can tell good old Lee everything."

Why not? Sniffing, I told him the whole story from the beginning. I left nothing out, not even my stupid jealousy towards Felicity and the insecurity of my feelings for Fred. He was a good listener, nodding and commenting in all the right places. Slowly, I began to feel better.

"What am I going to do?" I finished. "Angelina hates me, I don´t know who I´m in love with, my Potions essay sucks, and everyone knows where my hiding places are!"

Lee put his arm around me and hugged me. "It´ll be all right," he told me. "Angelina doesn´t hate you, she´s just mad at you right now. She´ll forgive you soon. You guys are best friends, and she won´t let a boy come between you."

"What about my hiding places? How come everyone knows where they are?" I felt a bit childish in saying this, but I had to get it off my chest.

He grinned. "Well… Maybe it´s because you told us where they are? You´re not very discreet about them." I blushed slightly. Come to think of it, I had actually told my friends where my not-so-secret places were.

"Thanks, Lee." I smiled at him. "It was really good to talk to you, I feel much better now."

"Anytime." He got up and mock-bowed to me. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go and meet Katie. Oh, yeah, one last thing. It´s not Fred you´re in love with…it´s George."


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I´m completely broke, therefore I cannot own Harry Potter.

**A/n:** Wow! It´s chapter 10! I´m very proud of myself right now. The story is nearing an end, but there will definitely be a sequel! Yay! All right, I´m not gonna keep you any longer. Get on with the reading!

**George´s PoV:**

I was lying on the couch in the common room, playing lazily with a deck of Exploding Snap cards, when Fred flopped down in a chair next to me.

"Hi, Gred!" he greeted me.

"Hi, Forge." I wondered what would happen if you set fire to the cards. Definitely something worth trying out, I decided. Not right now, though.

"So… Did you find out why people were staring at us at breakfast?" my brother said casually after a while. Too casually. I nodded without looking up. I could tell that it was something he wanted to say, but I also knew that he´d say it even if I didn´t ask him what it was.

"I just talked to Leesh," he suddenly blurted out. I looked up.

"You did? What about?" Like I didn´t know.

"Oh, you know… Friends, school, her being in love with me… All the usual stuff."

"Right," I said. "That must´ve been interesting."

"It was." For some reason, he was smirking. I scowled at him. I didn´t want to know any more, but my curiosity was impossible to control.

"What´d she say? Not that I care," I added quickly. "I´m just a bit curious, since she´s an old friend…"

"She said she´s not in love with me," he interrupted my ranting.

I stared at him in surprise. Hope was rising in my chest. The world suddenly seemed like a perfect place. The common room seemed to brighten up and become beautiful. And how come I´d never fully appreciated what a splendid person Fred was?

Just then, Alicia entered the room. She threw one look over at us, blushed furiously, and hurried away towards the girls´ dorm.

"It doesn´t look like she´s over you to me," I commented dryly, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my chest.

Fred grinned. "Oh, really? Cause I don´t think it was me she looked at just there!"

xxxxx

Breakfast the next day was a horrible affair. Alicia kept darting quick glances over at Angelina, who completely ignored her except for the times when she gave her long, ice-cold stares. Katie and Fred, determined not to get caught in the middle of their fight, were having a conversation about Quidditch. I was trying to follow it, but I kept loosing the thread and staring at Alicia instead. When she caught me at it, she blushed and looked away.

To my surprise, Lee leaned over to Alicia and muttered something that made her blush even more. What was going on? I decided that I had to talk to Lee.

Fortunately, our first class that day was Charms, where Lee and I always partnered. All I had to do now was to subtly make him tell me what was going on with Alicia without him noticing that I was wondering. No problem.

"Lee?" I said after a while of trying to master Aguamenti without muttering the incantation. It was really hard, I kept moving my lips and whisper the words. In addition, I had hit Lee about a dozen times with the water from my wand, and he was now soaking.

"Yes?"

"What´s up with you and Leesh?" Smooth, George. Real smooth. Why do I even bother to open my mouth? It´s not like anything worth hearing ever comes out of it.

Lee looked at me with something suspiciously like a smirk on his face. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," I said grumpily. "What´d you say to make her blush like that? D´you know something I don´t know?"

"Maybe."

Yes, it was definitely a smirk. I scowled at him. "What is it?"

"It could be many things…"

"Just tell me!"

"Okay." The smirk widened. "What I said was I knew red hair was your thing´."

I stared at him. Was he talking about her feelings for Fred? Of course he was, there was nothing else he could mean. Then again, I was the one who´d made her blush just by looking at her. Could he really mean...? "And what´s that supposed to mean?"

He laughed. "You´ll have to work that one out for yourself, I´m afraid."

Great. Now even Lee´s become a man of mystery. That´s just what I needed.

**Alicia´s PoV:**

Potions. The most dreaded subject for all Gryffindors. Now made even worse because all of a sudden, I was unable to say two words to George without starting to blush and stutter.

"Leesh? Can you hand me the unicorn hair?"

"Oh! Um, yeah, sure," I stuttered, feeling my face getting red. "Here you go." When he stretched out his hand to take the hair, we accidentally touched, and I squealed and jumped about a metre.

George looked at me with a curious expression. "Something wrong, Leesh?"

"Ah, um… Of course not! I just, I… stumbled! Yeah, that´s it! I stumbled!" His face clearly said: Yeah, right! ´, but thankfully Snape started walking over to our table just then, so he couldn´t press the subject.

We worked quietly for a while with Snape hovering around us. I was so nervous I kept trying to put in the wrong ingredients at the wrong time. If George hadn´t been there to stop me from making too many mistakes, the potion would probably have blown up in my face.

After a while Snape moved away from us, and George turned to me again.

"What´s up with you today, Leesh? You seem a bit… odd."

"Um, it´s nothing. Nothing at all," I said quickly.

"Be honest, Leesh!" He made a move as if to grab my arm, and I flinched and jumped backwards. In doing so I managed to knock over our potion, which spilled all over the floor, making a fizzing noise.

Snape turned around and saw the mess I´d created. "I think that´ll be… thirty points from Gryffindor," he said, sneering. "And a detention for you, Miss Spinnet."

Great. Suddenly I had, in addition to all my other problems, a detention with the Greasy-haired Git. Could my life get any worse?

Oh yes, it could.

"Professor!" George said just as Snape was leaving us again. He turned around again, slowly.

"What?" he asked icily.

"Alicia didn´t knock over the potion, professor. I did. So I should have the detention." I stared at him. Had he gone mad, all of a sudden?

"Really?" the professor said. "Well, I guess I should have expected that. After all, a Weasley…"

"He´s lying!" I said loudly. "I spilled the potion! So you can´t punish him, professor."

George frowned. "Just let me handle this, okay?" he said in an undertone, before continuing more loudly: "Don´t listen to her, she´s just trying to help me."

"Enough!" Snape looked at us with an expression of disgust. "You both get detention, and an additional thirty points will be taken from Gryffindor for disturbing the class. Now clear up this mess!"

I got to work at once, throwing George angry glances all the time. I noticed that he looked like he was just as angry with me, though.

"What´d you have to go and do that for?" he hissed at me as soon as Snape was too far away to hear us. "I had the situation completely under control, why´d you have to ruin it?"

"Me!" I was shocked (and quite angry, too). "It´s not like I´m the one who started taking the blame for someone else! You made this happen!"

"I did not! I was just trying to help you! How about a little thankfulness?"

"I didn´t need your help! I´m fully capable of surviving a detention, thank you very much! I don´t need a knight in shining armour to do it for me!" I scowled at him.

"All right, then! See if I´ll be there for you the next time!" He turned his back to me and started cleaning furiously. I did the same.

When the lesson was finished, Snape held us back and told us we had to wash the whole classroom with toothbrushes (and with absolutely no use of magic, of course). We did so in angry silence, ignoring each other except for the occasional glare.

At last Snape told us he was content. Actually, what he said was: "I guess I can´t expect anything better from Gryffindors", but at least he let us go.

As we walked back I was beginning to feel slightly stupid. Now that I had thought it through, I could see that all George had done was trying to help me. I hadn´t needed help, but it had still been a very nice thing to do. A really nice thing. I probably should apologize to him, but then I would feel really stupid for making such a fuss about nothing.

When we reached the common room, I had come to a decision.

"George," I said softly. "I´m sorry."

He turned and looked straight at me for the first time since our fight, but he didn´t say anything.

"I… I overreacted. You were only trying to help me, I shouldn´t have gotten angry at you. I know you did it for a good reason." I watched him intently. "Please don´t be angry, George. I´m really, really sorry."

"It´s okay," he replied. "I know you could´ve handled it yourself, I shouldn´t have gotten into it. I just thought… I don´t really know what I thought."

I smiled at him. "Thanks, George. I appreciate it." I reached out and hugged him.

We stood together for a long time. I didn´t want to let him go. Not now. Not ever.

Then I suddenly realized what I was thinking.

Oh crap.

I had fallen for George Weasley.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** Surprisingly enough I still don´t own Harry Potter. Who would´ve thought so.

**A/n:** Can´t think of much to say here, except for thanks to all those who reviewed (more than on any of the other chapters!). You are the best!

**Alicia´s PoV:**

The following Sunday, I was wandering aimlessly around the castle deep in thought. The subject upon which I pondered was (of course) George Weasley.

My brain was still refusing to admit the fact that I was in love with him, but the rest of me had fully and wholly accepted it. Every time I so much as looked at him now, my heart started skipping and my stomach lurched. Of course, his having this effect on me made me so embarrassed that I started blushing. Then George would ask me what was wrong, causing my heart to skip again and my face to become even redder. It felt like I was trapped in an eternal circle. I couldn´t stand to look at George, but I couldn´t stay away from him either.

It was clear that I had to do something about this, but what? I couldn´t think of anything. I could, of course, stay in my room for the rest of the year and hope that my crush had passed come June, but I didn´t really think that was a good solution. Neither was pretending that George didn´t exist.

What choices did this leave me with, then? Only one thing came to mind: Admitting to George how I felt about him. That one was obviously out of the question. Not only would it be terribly humiliating, but there was also the risk that he might think I was only using him to get over Fred. After all, I had done it before, so it wouldn´t be unreasonable of him to think of that possibility.

When I had gotten this far in my thinking, my search for a solution was suddenly interrupted by a voice.

"Hey, Spinnet!"

Angered by this intrusion in my peace, I spun around to see the person who was so rudely disturbing me. I found that Adrian Pucey was smirking at me.

"What do you want, Pucey?" I said, scowling at him. Talking to him was the last thing I wanted to do right now.

Unfortunately my scowl didn´t have the effect I had hoped for. Instead of running away screaming, like he should have, he came closer to me.

"A pretty girl like you shouldn´t be wandering around all by herself. You might get into trouble, you know."

"Is that a warning or a threat?" I replied icily.

"That depends on you." Suddenly he had stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. I shrieked and tried to pull away, but he was too strong.

"How dare you! Let me go!" I tried to slap him, but he caught my hand before I managed to hit him.

"Easy, Spinnet! There´s really no need to get violent," he said calmly. I glared at him. "I only want to ask you something."

"Go ahead and ask, then!" I said angrily. "But let go of me first!"

He ignored me completely. "Are you going out with Weasley?"

Well, that was unexpected. "What?"

"You heard me. Are you going out with Weasley twin number 2?" He grinned, apparently thinking that he was funny. I didn´t think so, though.

"His name is George," I informed him. "And no, I´m not going out with him! Not that it´s any of your business," I added quickly.

"Perhaps I´d like it to be my business," he said, sneering at me.

"And what do you mean by that?" I demanded to know. Somewhere in my mind I already had an idea of what he meant, but I didn´t really believe it. It was too improbable.

"If you´re not going out with him," Pucey explained to me, "then you can go out with me."

"What?" I couldn´t believe my own ears. Adrian Pucey was asking me out? In a very odd way, but still… he was asking me out! I looked up, expecting to see pigs flying around. There were none, though. A bit of a disappointment, that.

"So, when do you want to have our first date?" he said.

I looked at him in disbelief. "Who said I wanted to go out with you?"

"Why shouldn´t you? I mean, I´m handsome, rich, and a pureblood… You´re a pureblood too, aren´t you?" he asked, appearing to have suddenly remembered something.

"Yes, I am," I said. "So what?"

"You´re a pretty girl and a pureblood. Then you should be able to get something better than that Muggle-loving blood-traitor, and a poor one at that."

At this, my fear was turned into rage. I retrieved my hand and slapped him hard across the face. "I refuse to listen to this crap!" I shouted at him. "George is an amazing guy, much more handsome and kind and sweet than you could ever be! And as for that Muggle-loving´ part, I´ll have you know that Angelina, my best friend, is Muggle-born. So you can just shut that big mouth of yours, cause I´m not interested in hearing anything you´ve got to say!" I tried to free my other hand, but he tightened his grip around it.

"You think you´re too good for me, is that it?" he snarled. All the fear, which had left me earlier, was now back with full strength.

"Let me go," I pleaded again, but he didn´t even seem to hear me.

"D´you really think Weasley can make you happy? He can´t. He´s just a poor blood-traitor. I would be much better for you."

"I told you to let go of me!" I cried out, desperate to get away.

Then, suddenly, another voice was heard. "Let go of her, Pucey."

Both our heads turned to see who it was. I was amazed to see Angelina walking towards us, looking perfectly calm, as always. Pucey probably was surprised too, but I imagine that he felt none of the relief I felt.

"Angie!" I said softly. She smiled briefly at me before she turned to Pucey.

"If you do not let go of my friend this instant," she said coldly, "I will report you to Professor McGonagall for attacking her. I don´t think she´ll be very happy to hear about this." She gesticulated to my wrist, which was still caught in his hand.

"Mind your own business, mudblood," Pucey said angrily, but he let go of me and walked away, rather quickly. Angelina and I were left alone.

For a while none of us said anything. I was studying the floor intently, feeling worse and worse about myself as the moments passed in silence. Angelina had saved me from Pucey, even though I had betrayed her by not telling her how I felt about Fred. It made me feel completely rotten.

"Leesh…" she said at last, in an uncertain voice. I looked up and was surprised to see that she was teary-eyed. Impulsively I put my arms around her and held her, for a moment forgetting that she was angry with me.

"What´s wrong, Angie?" I said in my most soothing tone. Angelina didn´t answer me at once, she just sniffed and tried to dry her eyes. I let go of her, suddenly remembering that she was mad at me right now, but she didn´t seem angry that I had hugged her. Instead, she looked me in the eyes and smiled weakly.

"I´ve missed you, Leesh."

"I´ve missed you, too." I took a deep breath, preparing for what I knew I had to say. "I´m sorry I didn´t tell you how I felt about Fred. It was wrong of me, I should have told you. But I didn´t want to hurt you, I know that you two love each other and…" My voice died out, I couldn´t find the words for telling her how bad I felt about what I´d done.

"It´s okay, Leesh," Angelina said suddenly. I looked up at her.

"Really?" I whispered.

"Yeah. I overreacted and I´m sorry for that," she told me, her smile turning into a grin. I couldn´t help grinning back.

"We´re cool, then?"

"Absolutely." More hugging, crying and apologies ensued. I couldn´t believe that Angelina had forgiven me this easily, as she was good at holding grudges, but I was incredibly happy that she did.

At last we let go of each other, both of us smiling with tears still running down our cheeks.

"So… What made you decide to forgive me?" I asked curiously.

"I heard what you said to Pucey about me being your best friend," she said quietly. "And then I started feeling really bad because I´d refused to speak to you for so long. Besides, I had to help you get rid of that bastard."

"Yeah, I appreciated that. I don´t see why he was asking me out, but there´s no way I´d ever accept." I made a hand gesture to show just how I felt about Pucey, and Angelina snickered.

"I know what you mean," she said, grinning. "He´s a Slytherin, after all."

xxxxx

As we were walking back to the Gryffindor tower, I realized that there was one more thing I had to tell Angelina.

"Angie?" I said.

"Yes?"

"I´ve got something to tell you." I could feel my face getting red. "I haven´t told anyone about this yet, but… There´s someone I like. No, it´s not Fred," I added after seeing the look on her face. "It´s someone else."

Angelina´s reaction was just like I knew it would be. When she heard the news she was on me at once, begging me to tell her who it was. I smiled mysteriously and enjoyed the sight of her grovelling.

"Say please," I commanded.

"Please, please tell me who it is!" she readily obeyed.

"Well… It´s someone you know. A Gryffindor, actually." I could see that she was considering who it could be, apparently without reaching any conclusion.

"You haven´t guessed yet? I´ll give you another hint, then," I said. "I went to the Yule Ball with him."

Angelina´s jaw dropped. She stared at me for at least half a minute before my words finally seemed to sink in. At last she managed to regain her voice. "You´re in love with George?"

I nodded, smiling sheepishly.

"Wow! This is so great!" She became more and more excited as she spoke. "Have you told Katie yet?" I shook my head. "Then you´ve got to tell her! We have to get you two together! You´d be the cutest couple ever. Except for me and Fred, that is."

I watched in awe as Angelina´s Katie-like side came up to the surface. With her and Katie on the case, there was no way George and I could keep from getting together.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** I don´t own Harry Potter, and I´ll just have to learn to live with that.

**A/n:** Well, here we go with the last chapter! I´m so proud, and I can´t wait to start working on the sequel. Speaking of that, I´ve posted some info about it over at my Livejournal. Go check it out!

So, it´s my birthday today, and do you know what I´d really like? **100 reviews** for this story. You can do that, can´t you? I´m sure you can. I promise to dedicate the first chapter of the sequel to the 100th reviewer.

Last, but not least, I am dedicating this fic to Alicia/Jagged Epiphany, for three reasons:

Because she´s my beta/reviewer extraordinaire, and she has also agreed to beta the sequel

Because she´s the best George/Alicia writer ever

Because I read the first chapter of Castles In The Air´ today, and it was bloody amazing

**George´s PoV:**

"We could try using an Engorgement Charm for the feathers on the face," Fred suggested.

I shook my head. "I don´t really think that would do the trick," I said. "They´ll still be feathers, even if they´re bigger. We have to think of something to make them more like a beak."

We were sitting in the common room, trying to figure out ways to improve our Canary Creams. Right now we were working on the subject of beaks, which had proved to be a difficulty. All we had managed now was to make the feathers in the face go yellow. This would have been an improvement if it hadn´t been for the fact that your face stayed yellow for about two hours afterwards.

Before any of us could think of anything else, Angelina came over and joined us. "Hey, guys!" she said brightly. We both greeted her lazily and she continued: "I have to talk to you, George. In private." She gave me a look which I guess was supposed to be meaningful, but which actually didn´t tell me anything.

"I think you got that one wrong, Angie," I said. "I know you´re sad because you got the least handsome twin, that´s only natural. But Fred has many good…" Fred silenced me with a pillow in the face and, of course, I had to repay the favour. A pillow fight ensued, which was only ended when Angelina grabbed the pillow in midair and put it down.

"Will you please try to act less like four-year-olds?" she asked. Fred and I shook our heads. "I thought as much. Anyway, I really need to talk to you, George. I think you would be interested in hearing what I have to tell you."

I nodded and got up from the couch. "I´m all yours, Angie." She smacked me over the head. "Why do you have to take everything the wrong way?" I complained, following her out of the room.

"Because you usually mean it that way," she replied. I couldn´t argue with that, so I just kept my mouth shut and followed her into an empty classroom.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked, sitting down on a desk.

Angelina grinned. "It´s about someone you know," she said and then gave me an expectant look. I gave her a blank one in return.

"Am I supposed to get excited about that?" I asked. "Cause as far as I can see, this is something you could´ve told me in front of Fred. Is there more?"

Angelina sighed. "You're so oblivious, George. But all right, I´ll tell you more. Someone you know likes you."

This got me more interested. "Who is it?"

She smiled expectantly. "You have to guess!"

"Okay…" I said slowly. "Is it Patricia?" She shook her head. "Anne? Leanne? Eliza?" None of those gave a positive reaction, and I still had no idea who she meant. "C´mon Angie, give me a hint!"

"It´s a Gryffindor," Angelina told me, apparently a bit annoyed that I hadn´t worked it out yet. "Someone you know very well."

"Um…" I went through all the Gryffindor girls I knew very well. I couldn´t think of anyone I was especially close to except for the Chasers. "It´s not Katie, is it?"

"Of course not! She´s going out with Lee, remember? What´s the matter with you today, George? I would have thought it was obvious who I´m talking about."

I looked at her. She was smirking slightly, waiting for me to figure it out. Suddenly, a horrible thought struck me. Within a second I had got up from where I was sitting and was backing towards the door.

"It´s not… It´s not _you_, is it?" I said shakily. She glared at me.

"Are you stupid?" She sighed. "I´m dating your brother, remember?"

"It´s not you, then?"

"Of course it isn´t me! And now that we have cleared that up, who are we left with?"

It took a few seconds before it dawned to me. Then it took me a few more moments to comprehend it. At last I said in awe: "Alicia?"

She nodded solemnly. "You got it at last."

"Wow," I whispered. "That was unexpected…" A whole new world of possibilities was opening to me. Alicia finally liked me back… If it really was true that she did.

I frowned as this thought popped up in my head. I didn´t like thinking it, but I couldn´t help remembering the Yule Ball. The last thing I wanted was a recurrence of what happened then. It was of course possible that Alicia really was in love with me for real, but what if she wasn´t? What if she had only convinced herself that she was to get over Fred? And how would I know what the truth was?

Angelina waved a hand in front of my face. "Hello? Earth to George?" I blinked in confusion.

"What?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "I just asked you what you´re going to do about it. When are you going to ask her out?"

"I don´t know what I´m going to," I admitted. "Are you completely sure that it´s true, Angie? I mean, after what happened at the Yule Ball…"

"Oh, stop it," she said impatiently. "Haven´t you been dreaming about this for ages? Well, now´s your chance!"

"But what if she-"I tried to argue, but Angelina cut me off.

"Listen to me! The girl is crazy about you, okay? Now please do something about that crush of yours and get it over with! Seriously, how hard can it be," she muttered, evidently to herself. "Now, if you want the girl, go to the Astronomy Tower. And hurry!"

**Alicia´s PoV:**

Katie snuggled closer to Lee and kissed him. "I love you so much, sweetie," she murmured.

"I love you more, honey," he replied and kissed her ear.

"No, I love you the most."

"No you don´t."

"Yes I do."

"All right, that´s it!" I suddenly broke in. "If you don´t stop being so disgustingly lovey-dovey, I think I´m going to be sick."

Katie blushed, but nevertheless remained snuggled close to Lee. "Being lovey-dovey is one of our rights as the it-couple´ of Hogwarts," she explained to me. I snorted.

"Sure, Katie. Whatever you say." I grinned at her, and she stuck out her tongue. "Anyway," I continued, "why did you ask me to come with you to the library? I hope it´s not just because you wanted to snog right in front of me."

"Oh, right! I´d almost forgotten about that!" Katie said. She got up from her chair, leaving a clearly disappointed Lee behind, and sat down next to me. "Angie told me that you have finally admitted that you like George. But seeing as you´re both too slow to ever do something about it, we decided to help you a bit. So we put our clever heads together and thought up a plan."

"And how is me watching you and Lee snog supposed to get me and George together?"

She blushed again. "Um… That was just me getting a bit carried away. Anyway, back to the plan." She was about to continue, but I interrupted her.

"Are you really sure I want you and Angie to help?" I asked her. She frowned.

"Of course you do, don´t be ridiculous. It´s your only chance to get the guy. And besides," she glanced at her watch, "you´re meeting him in the Astronomy Tower in ten minutes. So you´d better hurry."

"Hey! It´s none of your business!" I protested, but she ignored me completely.

"Help me out here," she told Lee, and grabbed my arm. He obediently took my other arm and together they started dragging me out of the library and towards the Astronomy Tower. I soon realized that resistance was useless and just tagged along, cursing myself for ever telling Angelina how I felt about George.

xxxxx

I walked slowly up the last few steps to the top of the tower. Katie and Lee had stopped where the stairs started, but Katie had sworn that she´d hex me into oblivion if I turned back, and I had no doubt that she´d actually do it.

"Leesh," a voice said.

"Hey, George." I went over and stood next to him, looking out over the grounds. For a while none of us said anything.

At last, I turned and looked at him. He seemed oddly excited, his cheeks red and his hair more ruffled than usually. I couldn´t help smiling; he looked so adorable.

"I take it Angelina told you, then?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Oh." My eyes dropped to my feet, and I was unable to think of anything else to say. I mean, what do you say to someone who knows that you´re in love with him?

One sentence came to mind. "I love you, George."

"What!"

I slammed my hand over my mouth to keep myself from saying any more stupid things. My eyes widened in panic. Had I really just told George that I loved him? It looked like I had. Crap.

George appeared to be every bit as shocked as I was at this unexpected confession. He opened his mouth, but no words came. Instead he started pacing back and forth across the Tower. I watched him in silence, afraid that if I said anything I would scare him away.

At last he stopped in front of me and took a deep breath to calm himself. "Did you just say that you love me?" he asked in a hoarse voice. I nodded mutely. "And you really mean it? It´s not the Yule Ball all over again?" I shook my head. "Wow. That´s pretty heavy stuff, Leesh."

"I know," I whispered, at last daring to speak again. "I´m sorry, I shouldn´t have blurted out with it like that, without preparing you first."

"I love you, too, Alicia," George cut in before I could say anything else.

I blinked in surprise. "But… How can you? I´ve tricked you, lied to you and used you. How can you even trust me after that? Besides, I´m not even pretty. I´m completely plain and boring."

He put his finger over my mouth to shut me up. "You´re anything but plain and boring, Alicia. In fact, you are the most beautiful, special and sweet girl in the entire universe. You´re amazing. Take your smile. Whenever I see it I want to kiss you because you are so damn beautiful… How could I not love you? I would be crazy if I didn´t."

As he looked me deeply in the eyes, I saw myself for the first time the way George saw me, and I realized how beautiful I was to him. The most beautiful girl in the world.

"Thanks, George," I said softly. "Thanks for making me beautiful."

I leant in and kissed him.

_You make me beautiful_

_You make me prettier than_

_All my pretty friends_

_You make me beautiful_

_You make me adequate, proffesional and tense_

_- Bertine Zetlitz_


End file.
